ALGIERS: Algeria’s Constitutional Council on Sunday canceled the July 4 presidential election in this energy-rich North African country, plunged for months in a political crisis, after the two candidates — both unknowns — were rejected.
The council said in a statement that it is now up to the interim president, Abdelkader Bensalah, to set a new date for the vote.
Only two candidates turned in their files by the May 25 deadline, but the Constitutional Council rejected them. It did not say why.
A presidential election was ordered after ailing long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down on April 2 under pressure from the public and the powerful army chief, ending two decades of rule.
Citizens have held pro-democracy protests each Friday since Feb. 22 to press for a new era with new leadership that has no links to Bouteflika, who was rarely seen in public since a 2013 stroke.
The protests were triggered by Bouteflika’s plan to seek a fifth term.
Protesters want other top officials, including the interim president — an ally of Bouteflika — to leave office to ensure a new era for Algeria, which has been run since independence from France in 1962 by a generation that fought in the seven-year-long war.
Bensalah was named interim leader for a 90-day period, in keeping with the constitution. The Constitutional Council’s decision to cancel the July 4 voting and ask him to organize a new election suggests that he will remain in office beyond that limit, which will end in the second week of July. The council statement said that organizing elections was the interim leader’s “essential mission.”
The cancelation of the elections, decried by protesters, carried little surprise. Army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah appeared to acknowledge that the date was no longer firm, in an address last week to soldiers in which he called for dialogue — but rejected a transitional period demanded by numerous party leaders and by protesters, out of fear it could lead to chaos and a dangerous vacuum.
He said elections should be held “in the shortest delay possible.”
Judicial authorities, meanwhile, have gone after Bouteflika’s entourage, with a military court investigating his brother Said Bouteflika and two former generals once in charge of intelligence for “plotting against the authority of the state.” Said Bouteflika was widely viewed as the real power behind the ailing former president, and alleged by many to have contributed to raising corruption in an already corrupt system to new levels. Top business leaders also have been jailed.
Algeria cancels July 4 presidential vote, rejects candidates
Algeria cancels July 4 presidential vote, rejects candidates
- The constitutional council said it only received two candidates, who were seen as invalid
- The vote was supposed to elect a new president after Bouteflika’s 20-year rule ended
Gazan family takes legal action against UK govt for preventing them settling in Britain
- Family members trying to reunite with their father but have been refused key travel documents
- Gaza currently has no facilities to collect biometric data that UK requires
LONDON: A Palestinian family is taking legal action against the British government over a decision to bar them from settling in the UK.
The six family members, ranging in age from 14 to 23 years old, are seeking to leave Gaza and reunite with their father, but have been denied entry for security reasons.
UK government lawyers said it is official policy not to allow access to the country without biometric data, which is currently impossible to obtain or submit in Gaza.
In order to gather the relevant data, the family would need to exit Gaza via Jordan, which would require the provision of onward travel assurances by the UK government, which have not been granted.
At a court hearing on Monday, government lawyer Rory Dunlop said via written submission that giving the OTAs would be a “step too far” from current policy.
“An OTA is an exception to that policy because it requires the Secretary of State for the Home Department to guarantee entry before biometrics have been checked,” he said.
“Every exception to Her (His) Majesty’s Government biometric policy carries risks to national and border security because the individual may pose a risk that can only be identified by their biometrics.
“That is particularly so in a case, as here, where some of the claimants seeking an OTA are adults living in an area where there has been significant terrorist activity.”
The family say the decision to reject their applications is a breach of their human rights. Lawyer Charlotte Kilroy, acting on behalf of the family, said each member could prove their identity via their passports, and Israeli authorities had already approved their application to transit through the country to Jordan.
“Israel uses tools of mass-surveillance in Gaza, meaning any risks they posed related to terrorism activity in the region would have been identified,” Kilroy said.
“The claimants have never left Gaza, meaning there is no real prospect of their data being held or showing risk to the public interest in UK biometric checks.”
At an earlier hearing in December, when the decision was taken to reject the applications, Kilroy noted that the family’s father was taking medication to improve his mental health as the situation had left him worried over the safety of his relatives.
Earlier, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood won the right to restrict migrants using the European Convention on Human Rights to settle in the UK, after the Court of Appeal agreed with her that a scheme opened for Ukrainian refugees could not be used by others, following a Palestinian family’s attempts to use it to justify coming to Britain.
